Dueling Blind
by the hotpocket hunter
Summary: Same Universe, but off-cannon. Yusei is a blind duelist in the slums of the Satellite. When Kalin offers to let him stay at his place, he ends up meeting Kalin's friends. Who happen to be a bit crazy. Pairing undecided. Not all sunshine and unicorns. Unfortunately I'm only allowed 2 genres.
1. Chapter 1

Dueling Blind

Same universe, but not Canon. Jack is 18, Kalin will be turning 19, Crow is also 18, but younger than Jack, and Yusei is 16. No idea what age they are in the actual show. Anime is weird like that.

Chapter 1

Jack scoffed at one of Crow's comments as he pushed the door open.

"Oy! Kalin!" he barked.

Crow shoved past him. "Hey Kalin! Ya here?"

Crow ducked into the kitchen and Jack headed for the living room. Striding across the darkened room, Jack paused, eyes catching on the dark bundle of limbs and spiky hair tucked into the corner of an old armchair. Stepping closer, he made out black hair with gold streaks standing up at all angles, oversized clothing, and the slight rise and fall of the small male's chest as he breathed. Blinking in surprise, he stared for another moment before continuing down the hall to where Crow was noisily rousting Kalin from his sleep.

Kalin yawned and stretched as Jack came in. Couldn't they have let him sleep? "Seriously you guys? It's like 7am!"

Crow snickered. "It's almost noon."

Kalin gawked for a moment, snapping out of his surprise at Jack's sudden question.

"Who's your roommate?"

"Roommate?" squawked Crow. "You've got a roommate and you didn't tell me?" he accused. "Is it a guy or a girl? How'd you meet? Can I meet them? What are they like? Are you close?"

"Whoaaa, slow down Crow," chuckled Kalin. "It's a guy. His name is Yusei, and we're not super close yet. I only met him a couple of days ago and he needed a decent place to stay. Apparently he was on his own, but the place he was holed up in didn't have running water or electricity. Not all that uncommon here in the Satellite, but impressive considering how long he's been on his own."

Crow blinked curiously, opening his mouth for another question before he was cut off by Jack. "He's wearing your clothes. You never let anyone wear your clothes."

Kalin sighed. Jack was never one for small talk.

Crow piped up again. "What!?" he hollered. "I thought I was your best friend!"

"Of course not, you dolt, I am," dismissed Jack.

"What was that you-"

"Kalin?" interrupted a sleepy voice from down the hallway, a bit confused.

"Yup, and two more," he answered, quickly moving past the silenced pair.

"Friends of yours?"

"More like brothers," Kalin answered with a laugh. He reached forward, ruffling unruly gold-on-black spikes. "Fall asleep on the couch again?"

"No, the armchair this time," Yusei sighed, chuckling a bit.

"That's a guy?" asked Crow incredulously.

Jack smacked him upside the head. "Have a little tact."

Yusei yawned again, reopening slightly cloudy cobalt orbs. "If I wasn't so tired, I'd hurt you," he threatened ineffectively.

"Jack, Crow, go back to the living room," Kalin ordered in frustration. "You're blocking the hall. I'll be there in a minute."

The two did as told, watching Kalin lead a sleepy Yusei by the hand. "You should really work on making it to the bed," laughed Kalin, half-serious.

"I tried," the raven defended. "I couldn't remember which one was mine. You've got like 3 bedrooms!" He sounded embarrassed.

"You'll get it," reassured Kalin. "But later," he amended. "You should get some sleep in an actual bed first."

The voices trailed off down the hallway as the two disappeared into one of said bedrooms.

Jack and Crow waited in the living room for Kalin to come and explain, knowing he wouldn't leave them there for long. Said male popped into the room a couple of minutes later.

"First things first," he warned, "don't prank him."

Crow blinked, surprised by his seriousness. "Why not?"

Kalin narrowed his eyes, sensing the coming defiance. "_Don't,"_ he repeated. "He's blind."

Crow lurched, unsure he'd heard right. "Really?"

"Yes, and he hadn't really had a chance to settle down here yet, either. Give him a chance to get used to us before you start messing around. I don't want him to get hurt and he seems pretty skittish."

Crow seemed to do an immediate about face. "I don't prank people with handicaps," he promised solemnly.

Kalin laughed. "Don't treat him like glass, either. It frustrates him."

"Why?"

"Heh?"

"Why's he so important?" demanded Jack, narrowing his eyes. "Why is a total stranger living in your house? It's not like you, Kalin."

Kalin sighed. "He's a good kid, ya know? And he's only 16, which makes you two years older than him. How could I leave a kid like that alone in a hellhole like he was living in?"

Crow nodded. "I see what ya mean, but why here? You coulda left him with Martha. He'd have more people around to take care of him."

Kalin shifted uneasily. "Honestly? I really thought he'd fit in well with the guys. I guess you probably can't see it yet, but I was thinking he could stick around."

"Can he duel?" challenged Jack.

Kalin smirked. "Of course he can duel; that's how I found him. He's amazing. If he dueled me, I'm not sure who would win. His deck is seriously hardcore."

Both visitors stilled for a moment.

Crow whistled. "That's a pretty big claim, man. Ya seen 'im duel before?"

"Yup." Kalin popped the 'p' with an incredibly smug look on his face.

Crow paused, brow wrinkling in confusion. "Wait, if he's blind how does he duel?"

"He started with a friend reading off the cards to him and built a gadget that scans the cards and plays back their names, points, and abilities to him through an earpiece. It's installed in his duel disc."

Jack blinked. "A gadget, you say?"

Kalin, knowing where he was going, answered immediately. "He's a good mechanic too, and sometimes he talks like Bruno."

Jack and Crow both stared at him in shock.

Crow recovered first. "It takes all kinds…" he finally managed.

"Can he help with our runners?" Jack demanded.

"Yeah, he's already worked on mine. He cut down the cool time for the boosters by half. He'd probably be able to do even better if he worked with Bruno. He can't use any visual schematics or design programs, but he can build a wicked engine from scratch in just a couple of hours," he added.

"Pretty impressive," agreed Crow. "I say he stays."

"Jack?"

"I'll tolerate him."

"Guess it's settled then."


	2. Chapter 2

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" asked Yusei nervously. "What if they don't like me?"

Kalin sighed in exasperation. "It's fine, Yusei. The guys are going to love you. Bruno's really into mechanics like you are, and Crow's pretty handy with a wrench,too, though Bruno's tech-speak goes right over his head."

Yusei chuckled a little.

"And Jack's a good friend," continued Kalin reassuringly, ruffling Yusei's hair. "He's just a little grouchy is all." He frowned. "And arrogant. Definitely arrogant."

Yusei chewed his lip worriedly. "But-"

"Relax," ordered Kalin. "You'll be fine, okay? I've known these guys for years. No one's gonna hurt you."

Yusei's cheeks colored, embarassed that Kalin could read him so well.

"Now come on."

Yusei followed a step behind Kalin, senses opening up as they walked down the empty street. Vigilance was something that kept you alive and free in Satellite, and Yusei's blindness had forced him to compensate by sharpenig his other senses. After about a week of Yusei either scaring the life out of Kalin and Kalin failing to return the favor, the older male had affectionately dubbed him 'Radar'.

Yusei picked up a slight scratching noise and tugged at Kalin's sleeve. "What've you got?"

"Two, maybe three. Not stealthy at all, so probably all brawn and no brains," Yusei returned quietly. "No duel discs either; there's no humming. How much farther?"

"Just another block,"breathed Kalin, tucking Yusei against his side in the guise of a casual hug. The two continued, picking up the pace slightly.

They were only about 20 feet from the garage when the thugs decided to show themselves.

"Well, well, well, what have we got here?" taunted the leader.

Kalin felt Yusei palm the stun-pistol he'd engineered. Being blind made hand-to-hand combat hard, after all. "On three." On one.

"One!" The two dove away from eachother, Yusei rolling to a crouch to fire in the direction of the man that had spoken. A sizzle and a thud let him know he'd hit the mark. Though obviously not the same caliber as a taser, the home-made weapon was far from useless.

A thump and a groan meant Kalin had taken out the second man.

Yusei danced to the side, foot work sure despite the uneven ground as he dodged the punch that probably would have knocked him out cold. He hissed pain as something nicked his cheek. A knife.

A quick step back and he fired again, taking out the third thug with ease. Even blind, it was impossible to miss from such a short distance. He sighed in relief as the three sources of slow breathing and one fast let him know first that the thugs were out cold, and second, that Kalin was okay, but winded.

He slipped the weapon back into his belt as Kalin approached him. "Nice. Don't know what you need me for," he joked. "You handled that just fine."

Yusei's lips twitched up a little. Kalin was a nut.

* * *

Kalin rolled his eyes as the stood outside the garage. "You took out two hardened criminals with ease and you're still afraid to meet everyone."

Yusei's response was mumbled and unintelligible.

Kalin hooked an arm around his narrow shoulders and lead him down the stairs. "You'll be fine," he reiterated softly.

A loud clang and some cursing greeted them as they entered the building. Kalin watched out of the corner of his eye as Yusei tipped his face left and right a tiny amount. Kalin recognized the motion as Yusei attempting to map the room by sound.

"Hey guys!" he shouted.

"Kalin!"

"Hey Kal!"

"Good to see ya, man!"

The three original occupants of the building called out their greetings, obviously well-familiar with Kalin's random visits.

"Hey, I got someone for you guys to meet," Kalin called back down.

"So not helpful," Yusei hissed.

"Relax, Bat," he whispered back. "It's fine."

He rubbed his thumb over Yusei's shoulder bone absently when he felt the smaller male tense. His friends had stopped a couple feet away, but Yusei was still twitchy.

"Jack, Crow, you saw Yusei at the house the other day," he started. "Yusei, Crow's the one you wanted to hit." Yusei nodded, filing the information away for later.

"The third guy's Bruno. He's the one you can actually speak techno-babble in and be understood."

Yusei smiled a little.

Bruno, probably the most social of the four, grinned back at him. "So, I hear you're good with engines. Mind giving me a hand?"

Yusei edged out of the protective circle of Kalin's presence tentatively, steps careful. "Sure. What's the problem."

Bruno's grin widened. "Cool. Okay, so I've been trying to cut down the time on the start-up sequence for the accelerators, but I keep losing actual accelerator power there."

Yusei frowned. "Why not reroute the circuitry so that it goes straight to jump? You'd lose a little efficeiency, but you could revamp the engine to recirculate the excess energy back into the energy, which would compensate for the loss."

Bruno looked at him, slack-jawed. "You're a genius! But wait, what if the excess power's not enough to make that compensation?"

"Then you probably have a short somewhere. It'd take energy to bridge the gaps in the circuitry, but if the wires are close enough together you might not have noticed it."

Bruno seemed to think that over for a moment before babbling something utterly unintelligible and diving for a wrench. Yusei grinned, shifting slightly back toward Kalin."

"I like him," he approved. "I was starting to think I'd never find someone who'd actually understand that."

Kalin grinned. "See?"

Yusei huffed in amusement. "Alright, not so bad," he murmured.

He jumped in surprise as Crow shouted his name. "Yusei!"

"Y-yeah?"

"Tell Jack he's not the best duelist in the world!"

Yusei gawked at the childish demand before recovering and stating, matter-of-factly, "Of course he's not. That would be me. Or possibly Kalin. No, probably me," he decided.

Kalin laughed at his friends' expressions at that serious statement. "He's probably right," he offered. "I've never seen him even have much of a challenge in all the duels I've watched."

Yusei snorted indignantly. "Stalker."

"Midget."

"Giant."

"Brat."

"Troglodite."

"Idi- wait, what?"

Yusei burst out laughing at the befuddlement in Kalin's tone.

"Duel me!" begged Crow. "Please? If Kalin says you're good, you're probably amazing!"

Yusei looked slightly embarrased. "Um, maybe another time?"

Kalin snickered. "Come on Crow, leave him be. You can duel him later."

Crow whined in disappointment. "Can I at least see your deck?"

"Which one?" asked Yusei mischeviously.

Crow stared. "You have more than one?"

"Two," Yusei confirmed. "Anarchy and a Junk Deck."

"Cool..." drooled Crow. "Lemme see! Lemme see!"

Yusei shifted a little. "Which one?"

"Um..."

"The Junk Deck," Jack interjected.

Yusei smiled fondly, slipping the pack of cards from his belt.

Kalin tugged him over to a battered coffee table and wedged them both into an armchair. "Bruno! Drop the blow-torch and come check it out!"

The five crowded around the table.

Yusei's smile turned a little sad. "This one on top-" he flipped the card over and layed it face-up on the table, "-was my dad's. It's called Stardust Dragon."

Several people hissed in shock as they took in the cards stats and sacrificial special ability.

Yusei looked proud. "It's the headliner of this deck. I've had it for as long as I can remember, and man, I got into some nasty fights to keep it."

"Speaking of which," interrupted Bruno. "What happened there?"

He pointed to Yusei's cheek. Yusei couldn't see the motion, but quickly guessed, putting his fingers to his cheek and frowning as they came away wet. Kalin hissed angrily. "Those guys from earlier." His tone seeped fury. "How'd I not see that earlier?"

"His hair was in the way," answered Bruno. "And what guys?"

Kalin stood. "I'll grab you something for that."

Yusei hummed gratefully, and responded to Bruno's question. "Three guys jumped us on our way here," he answered casually. "They weren't exactly bright." He outright snorted at that.

Bruno was surprised at the response. "Why aren't you more upset?"

Yusei grinned. "I have a stun pistol."

Three sets of eyes blinked in surprise.

Crow stared at him, wide-eyed. "How'd you get one of those?"

Yusei shrugged. "Nicked a core, built the rest."

"And you don't even have a mark yet?" asked Crow, scratching at his own yellow tattoo.

"'Course not. No one expects a blind kid to steal their stuff."

The bored tone of his statement made Jack and Crow exchange a meaningful glance.

"You're going to be trouble, aren't you?" asked Jack, amused.

Yusei just grinned cheekily.

Crow watched curiously. The cheeky teen before him was completely different from the timid male that had come into the shop. Apparently, Yusei was getting comfortable with them.

Kalin returned a few minutes later, cleaning the scratch gently and smoothing a bandage into place. The next hour was spent ooing over Yusei's unusual deck- especially his Stardust Dragon and an ancient looking card dubbed Junkyard Angel.

After, Bruno and Yusei engaged in furious techno-babble, accompanied by adjustments to an engine sitting on a block in the middle of the garage.

Though the rides were illegal, the blacked-out windows and heavy-duty iron door kept their duel runners safe.

Things finally wound to a close when Kalin returned from a food run to find Yusei asleep on the couch.

Crow was moving around the living room, absently keeping an eye on the newest addition to their flock. While he seemed like a good kid, Crow could tell there was seomthing off about the boy. Not off as in bad, just unusual. He had noticed how sad Yusei had looked while mentioning his father. No questions there, the guy was obviously dead or gone. Sometimes people just left.

Kalin joined him soon, the two hovering protectively as Bruno collapsed into an armchair, falling asleep in seconds. Jack was last to arrive in their make-shift living room, a sheltered area built of scrap metal in one corner of the garage. Bruno and Crow had managed to jerry-rig a heater, and the bedrooms were really just sectioned off poritons of the metal structure.

Jack eyed Yusei's sleeping form speculatively. "Why don't you stay here tonight?" he offered. "You'll be moving in soon anyway, and I don't think it's a good idea to go out this late at night when Yusei's not at the topmof his game.

Kalin accepted the offer with a tired nod. "Maybe move the beds in here tonight?" he suggested. "It's pretty cold, and the heat's not as good in the bedrooms."

They agreed quickly, Kalin slipping back into the leader role as they closed off the living room for the night. He tossed an extra blanket over Yusei, guessing the smaller male would get cold faster than the others.

After everyone was settled in(which included Yusei not moving an inch and Kalin having to drag Bruno into an actual bed) Crow turned the lights out.

Kalin smirked in the dark before drifting off to sleep.

It seemed his family had just gotten a little bigger.


End file.
